Google Nexus 9 Review and Ratings

Editors’ Rating:

Our Verdict:
The Nexus 9 provides a good mix of light weight and screen size, and it has great graphics performance. But its battery life disappoints, and the tablet occupies a tough middle ground hemmed in by iPads and other, more premium Android tabs. Read More…

What We Liked…

Comfortable, lightweight design

Above-average speakers

Runs pure version of latest Android ("Lollipop")

What We Didn’t…

Rubberized back is fingerprint- and streak-prone

No MicroSD card slot for storage expansion

Slow to charge

Ho-hum battery life

Google Nexus 9 Review

Table of Contents

Introduction & Design

In a mixed-up market of Apple iPads, Android slates, and blossoming Windows 8 tablets, the Google Nexus 9 isn't the newest, slickest, or cheapest full-size Android tablet you can choose. But it still has a lot to offer Android purists.

Even if you're not in the hunt for an unvarnished Android "Lollipop"-on-tablet experience, the Nexus 9's compelling balance of screen size and weight makes it stand out from the crowd. The pure-Google experience will cost a little more than competing Android models, including the similarly sized Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 (2014 Edition), but it is priced competitively with the (albeit smaller-screened) Apple iPad Mini 3.

If anything, that's the most surprising thing about the Nexus 9. We're used to seeing Google push the pricing angle when it fronts a tablet, rather than toeing the status-quo line. The Nexus 9 comes in two capacities: a 16GB-capacity model for $399, and a 32GB one for $479. A cellular-capable LTE version of the Nexus 9 costs another $129—$29 more than opting for the same on the 2014 Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 (2014 Edition). Realize, though, that LTE connectivity is only an upgrade on the 32GB version of the Nexus 9.

Those prices are in line with that of the 7.9-inch Apple iPad Mini 3, which starts at $399 in its own 16GB version. However, you can tack on a cellular option for $129 at any capacity with the iPad Mini. Also note that Apple skips a 32GB capacity on the Mini 3 (and, indeed, on all current-gen iPads), in the Mini's case going straight to a 64GB version at $499. So the comparisons between the Mini and the Nexus 9 are a little uneven.

The Nexus 9 does what Google can do best: It delivers Android straight-up, unvarnished, and able to be upgraded to the latest version of the OS with no hassles or issues. After walking through the friendly onscreen setup, we proceeded with updating the OS and our installed Google apps. Shortly after we did the first update, we got a notification that another was available. We downloaded that one, too, and boom—we were up and running with Android 5.1.1 ("Lollipop"), as current as the OS comes. While the also-cracking-new Dell Venue 10 7040 (which we're in the process of reviewing) ships with Android 5.0.2, most of the other tablets we've tested are still using some version of Android 4.4 ("KitKat").

That point alone gives Nexus 9 an edge, as does the fact that, as an unadulterated Google Nexus device, it's the best tablet choice for Android developers. But what about everyone else? Well, we found lots to like. The Nexus 9 has an attractive-enough design, a great display, and excellent speakers. While some buyers may appreciate the extra hand-holding of other Android tablets, with their Android skins and vendor-specific environments, the Nexus 9 gives you none of that, beyond the basics of the native Android setup screens. Nor does the Nexus 9 have any of the bloatware that you will find bogging down many competing tablet models.

Let's see how the Nexus 9 stacks up against the Android and Apple competition.

Design & Features

After years of 7-inch tablets being the norm for smaller-form tablets, 8-inch tablets are the new floor at the low end. That, in turn, makes sense when you consider that models like the Google Nexus 9 (and the Amazon Fire HDX 8.9) push the limits of balancing display size and physical handling. We've always liked the extra screen real estate of 9-inch-class tablets, which fall smack in the middle of the more typical tablet screen sizes, at 8 inches and 10 inches.

At 9 inches, you have plenty of room to enjoy consuming media, and to use the tablet for productivity apps, too. That extra inch of display size makes the 9-inch tablet more conducive for use at a lunch meeting, or while flying economy class.

The Nexus 9 measures 9 inches tall (in portrait orientation) by 6.1 inches across. It's just under a third of an inch thick. That shaves meaningful bits off of the Amazon Fire HDX 8.9, which is saddled with a larger bezel around the display. However, even with the wider bezel and slightly larger dimensions (0.31 inch thick, 9.1 inches high and 6.2 inches across), the Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 actually weighs a full tenth of a pound less than the Nexus 9: 0.83 pound, versus the Nexus 9's 0.94 pound in its Wi-Fi versions.

We noticed the extra heft when holding the tablet in one hand, but beyond that, the Nexus 9 feels very comfortable to use. Surprisingly so given its heavier weight, we had no issues with performing two-handed actions. The rubberized paint at back contributed to the tablet being comfy to hold, and we appreciated that the smooth texture and surface didn't attract random dust and particles, as we've seen on some tablets. Unfortunately, the back surface was also prone to show off our fingerprints and greasy marks, a source of annoyance. You have your choice of three back-surface colors: Indigo Black (as on our review model), Lunar White, and Sand.

The Apple iPad Mini 3 and the Apple iPad Air 2 each bracket the Nexus 9 in size and weight. The iPad Mini 3, with its Retina display, is a little smaller, and noticeably lighter: It has a 7.9x5.3-inch footprint, measures 0.29 inch thick, and weighs in at 0.73 pound. The iPad Air 2, meanwhile, is the same thickness, measures 9.4x6.6 inches, and comes in right at a pound. Bear in mind that the full-size iPads also have a larger screen than the Nexus 9, at 9.7 inches since their inception.

The Nexus 9 has a 1.6-megapixel, f/2.4 Webcam that's mounted in the center of the display, along the left side when the tablet is held in landscape, or at the top of the display when holding it in portrait. That's a curious placement choice, as most tablets of the 9-inch and 10-inch size classes have the camera mounted optimized for landscape use. However, the Nexus 9 has such narrow bezels alongside the display in portrait mode that the lens location makes sense. Our issue with that choice, however, is that if you hold the Nexus 9 in hand for video calls, as we tried to when using Google Hangouts, the camera's view was extremely tight, and the tablet was awkward to hold in portrait mode one- or two-handed for any length of time due to the lack of safe gripping room that was not part of the screen. (Plus, Hangouts seemed to prefer to be used in portrait mode.)

As for the 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, it, too, has an unusual location. It's situated at the upper left corner, at back, with an LED flash. The camera also has an f/2.4 aperture rating, but our test images using this lens in a dim restaurant were grainy and unremarkable. Outdoor shots looked a bit better, but they were also ho-hum, especially compared to shots from like-priced tablets. In addition, the focus response with this lens was very slow, which led us to miss the action we were shooting much too often.

The Nexus 9's design is otherwise streamlined. In portrait orientation, the power button and volume rocker sit along the right edge, near the upper corner. The buttons are so flat that they practically blend into the edge, which is nice from a design perspective...

But we wish the buttons had just a smidge more definition, so they'd be easier to activate by feel.

Centered along the bottom edge is the micro-USB connector, for power and data transfers. And at the top, near the upper right, sits the headphone jack. As with the previous Google Nexus series tablets—the Nexus 7 (2013 Edition)and the Nexus 10 that this model replaces—the Nexus 9 lacks a MicroSD card slot, so whatever capacity you buy is what you're stuck with.

Display & Audio

One detail we particularly appreciated was the pair of front-facing speakers armed with HTC BoomSound, a speaker technology from HTC that the company first introduced with the HTC One phone. (HTC is the behind-the-scenes maker of the Google Nexus 9.) For starters, the speakers are slim, and centered alongside the top and bottom of the display, when held in portrait. Unlike on competing tablets, we didn't find we blocked the speaker output with our hands in typical grip positions with the Nexus 9, and that's a tricky thing for a tablet designer to keep from happening. So kudos are due there. We noticed the audio output from the speakers was very pleasing, too: robust and full-bodied. We noted little to no distortion and good loudness on our test tracks, as well as in movie soundtracks for the test videos we ran through the tablet.

The Nexus 9's display is an IPS panel, and it measures 8.9 inches on the diagonal, the same as the screen on the Amazon Fire HDX 8.9. However, the Nexus 9 carries a lower resolution than the Amazon model: 2,048x1,536 pixels (which equates to 281 pixels per inch) to the Amazon Fire HDX's 2,560x1,600 pixels and 339ppi. The Nexus 9 beats the Apple iPad Air 2 in the pixel-density stakes (that seminal tablet comes in at 264ppi), but it falls short of the iPad Mini 3's 326ppi.

In spite of that lower resolution on the Nexus 9, we found that test images looked bright and colorful, with accurate colors. Text also looked sharp and solid, and as you'd expect from an IPS display, the side-to-side viewing angles were A-OK in all directions.

Table of Contents

Google Nexus 9

Our Verdict:
The Nexus 9 provides a good mix of light weight and screen size, and it has great graphics performance. But its battery life disappoints, and the tablet occupies a tough middle ground hemmed in by iPads and other, more premium Android tabs.

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